Why the selfie-parade, o people of social media? According to an article in the Washington Post, of the 27 officially recorded selfie-related deaths, almost half happened in India.
Yes, we are a country which has a very tech savvy Prime Minister, with various active social media accounts. PM Modi’s selfie-love is no big secret and now it looks like Indians are taking it a little too seriously.
Three girls were swept into the Arabian Sea while they tried to click a selfie on a rock. One of the girls, and a man who dived in to rescue them, were later reported dead. Following this, Mumbai now has specifically marked “no selfie zones” in the city.
Similarly, the Kumbh ka Mela was another potential site for selfie-disasters last year. Authorities feared that selfie-groups at hugely crowded affair might cause blockages and congestion triggering stampedes.
The selfie-obsession has seen a phenomenal growth ever since its recent arrival. Social networking had brought huge attention to physical appearance. One fine day, people woke up to realise that no other person could make them look their best in their pictures -and hello, selfies.
Thus began a pageant of duck-faces and pouts and squinted-eyes (the latest fad in the selfie-world, in case you were wondering). Leave a toddler with a device with a front camera, and they would never be in want of anything else.
But don’t let any of this stop you from fluttering your eye-lashes in front of a selfie-snapper. Bring out that selfie-stick already, just make sure to keep yourself safe and alive, is all.
The old phrase “I’d rather be eaten by a shark” comes to mind, and it has never sounded more comforting than now. According to Mashable, selfie deaths this year have surpassed the number of deaths by shark attacks.
A 66-year-old Japanese tourist died after attempting to take a selfie with his companion at the Taj Mahal’s Royal Gate. The companion suffered injuries to his leg after both fell from the stairs of the monument. The man’s death takes the selfie toll to 12 for 2015. In comparison, shark attack deaths account for 8 so far.
Selfie risks are far worse than what one may think. These tragic accidents are a reminder that focusing on your phone screen rather than your surroundings can lead to dangerous consequences. Selfie deaths have mostly been caused by falling, which is a result of trying to capture pictures from dangerous positions.
There is an unhealthy obsession with selfies, so much so that people will go to any lengths to take that perfect, memorable picture. You find selfies being taken on a train track (which is the second biggest reason for selfie deaths), with weapons, animals, over ledges, and in other dangerous and potentially risky positions.
Many tourist spots have begun to warn visitors from using selfie sticks and taking selfies in general, and with the death toll rising like this, the prohibition could get a lot more serious.
Sony has launched the Xperia M5 Dual at Rs.37,990 and will be available at all Sony Centers and all leading retail outlets across India today. Let us now have a look at its specifications and other details:
Fisrtly, the Xperia M5 Dual is a smartphone with a special selfie focused camera. So, on that front it comes with a 21.5MP primary camera with a 5248 X 3936p resolution, phase detection autofocus, and an LED flash. It has an impressive 13MP front camera with autofocus and 1080p resolution at 30fps. As if this wasn’t enough, it also comes with a full HDR video capturing feature with 2160p resolution at 30fps.
This high-end smartphone comes with a 5-inch display, IPS LCD touchscreen with 16M colours and 1080 X 1920p resolution. This display is protected by a scratch resistant glass.
Thirdly, on the storage front, it comes with a built-in memory of 16GB that can be extended up to 200GB via a microSD card and also has a 3GB of RAM.
On the software front, it is run on the latest Android OS version 5.0 Lollipop and is powered by a Mediatek MT6795 Helio X10. It comes with an octa-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53 CPU and a PowerVR G6200 GPU.
Finally, it is fuelled by a non-removable Li-Ion 2600mAh battery and comes in three colour variants – black, white and gold. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11, DLNA, hotspot, Bluetooth v 4.1, GPS, NFC, FM radio with RDS and a microUSB v2.0.
Here are the specifications:
Features
Xperia M5 Dual
Display
5.0 inch display, IPS LCD touchscreen
Resolution
1080 X 1920p
Processor
Mediatek MT6795 Helio X10
OS
Android version 5.0 Lollipop
GPU
PowerVR G6200
CPU
Octa-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53
Rear Camera
21.5MP primary camera, 5248 X 3936p resolution, phase detection autofocus, and LED flash
Front Camera
13MP front camera with autofocus, 1080p resolution at 30fps
Connectivity
Wi-Fi 802.11, DLNA, hotspot, Bluetooth v 4.1, GPS, NFC, FM radio with RDS
At the ongoing Zen Fest held in New Delhi, Asus has launched three new smartphones. One of them is the Asus Zenfone Selfie which, as name suggests, is aimed at selfie enthusiasts. With a 13MP front camera, it can click sharp self portrait images. The hi-res front camera is paired with a 13MP back camera as well; both come with Dual-LED flash. The device has been priced starting at Rs. 15,999.
Camera specifications aside, the smartphone sports a 5.5-inch full-HD (1920x1080p) IPS LCD display, protected by Gorilla Glass 4. Snapdragon 615 octa-core 64-bit processor paired with Adreno 405 GPU is equipped to the Asus Selfie. It comes with 2GB RAM for the 16GB variant and the 3GB RAM for the 32GB variant. The two handsets run on Android 5.0 Lollipop OS with custom ZenUI on top. The two variants come with expandable memory and are fuelled by a 3,000mAh battery.
Some of the other smartphones which for selfie lovers include Sony Xperia C4, Micromax Canvas Selfie, HTC Desire Eye and the recently launched Xperia M5.
The smartphone is 4G-enabled and comes with dual SIM capabilities.
Here are the full specifications of the Asus Zenfone Selfie
Mobile phones have become an extended appendage to our bodies. Today though, with the stable establishment of the Smartphone, our lifestyle and etiquette has entirely changed. We embraced this change of modernity without much resistance, although it doesn’t hurt to wonder what it would have been like otherwise.
The Word ‘Selfie’ Would Not Be a Part of the Dictionary
The still trending culture of the ‘selfie‘ would be non-existent and one would have to learn how to perfect the art of holding one’s digital camera awkwardly. It helps that the new smartphones now come with a good front camera with up to 8MP HD clarity.
We Would be Rolling Down Our Car Window to Ask for Directions
Shopkeepers and road signs or even a REAL map would show us the way instead of the GPS or Google Map.
Image Source: Raising Gentlemen
Our Pictures Would Have #NoFilter
Instagram has nothing less than a cult following since its introduction. The App allows people to publish their photographs and has by far, the most aesthetic editing options that any photo editing app could offer. Although saying that it revolutionized picture quality and the art of photography would be going too far.
Source : Emarketing Blog
No Video Chats On-the-Go
At one point Skype was the only means to video chat across the world. It seemed like a revolutionary idea until the advent of the smartphone and along with it multiple video chatting apps such as FaceTime, Viber etc.
Remember SMS?
Two of the most popular apps for informal communication have changed the world of text messaging. Now we barely ever fill up our texting balance because we would rather use the Wi-fi to text, call, send jpeg images, voice notes etc.
Source : Mashable
We’d Still be Buying Cookbooks, Dictionaries, and Books in General
With the introduction of reading apps like Kindle, Aldiko Book Reader, Cool Reader etc. we have almost stopped opening Dictionaries, Cook Books and buying special edition magazines and novels. The reading app has become so much a part of our culture that Sunday morning Church services also involve the congregation taking out their mobile phones instead of The Bible. The mantra being, ‘less is more’.
Downloading and Storing Music
Today music enthusiasts don’t need to go to Music Stores in order to buy their favourite albums. In fact they don’t even need to buy an MP3 player or even the life changing iPod. All one needs to do is own a smartphone with apps such as SoundCloud, Apple Music, Spotify etc and you have it all in tow.
We should also be thankful that we’re no longer downloading music (along with a hundred viruses) from Limewire or Bearshare.
Candy Crush and Angry Birds Probably Wouldn’t Exist
Long ago in the 90s, if we wanted to play computer games we would have to go to the gaming parlours to experience the ultimate fun of gaming. Even when the feature Nokia mobile phone arrived the only game they had was called Snakes and it was joyous!
Arguments Wouldn’t Be Resolved Until Someone Located a PC/Laptop
Initially internet access would only be available to computer users and those who did not own one would have to visit Cyber Cafes. The feature phone too did not have a Wifi or data connection option and therefore the Cyber Cafés and computer business thrived. But with the coming of the smartphone and all its internet options most people now choose to buy a smartphone which has all the functions of a laptop or PC and have internet access on the go.
Without our smartphones, everytime anyone got into an argument, it wouldn’t be resolved till someone located a PC/Laptop.
To-Do Lists
The emergence of reminder apps have alone perhaps dropped the sales of efficient and creative stationary like sticky notes, labels, notebook fridge magnets etc.
In conclusion, a world without the smartphone would still be beautiful but perhaps won’t be able to keep up with the notoriously infamous ‘fast-paced modern’ lifestyle.
‘Selfie’ is a trend that refuses to die down. The proliferation of smartphones with front-facing cameras is giving a tremendous boost to it. Smartphones are fast eating into the market shares of camera makers and all they can do is try to catch up. Fujifilm has now taken an effort to cash in on the Selfie mania with its new X-A2 camera.
The Fujifim X-A2 is a mirrorless camera with a 175-degree flip screen which you can use to click selfies. The camera looks retro which gets extra points in the design category. It supports interchangeable lens and gives you far better selfie images than your phone’s front facing camera could.
Flip the display towards you and the camera automatically sets to face and eye detection
As soon as you flip the screen towards yourself, the camera adjusts the settings to enable face detection so that your prized moments are in perfect focus. The camera comes with 16-50mm (24-76mm-equivalent) f/3.5-5.6 lens which would let you take wider selfies. The X-A2 comes for a price tag of $550 which is pretty steep if you’re buying it just for its advanced selfie feature. Also by adding $150 more, you get a 50-230mm (76-350mm-equivalent) f/4.5-6.7 lens.
Maybe the end of the pocket camera is near. As smartphones get better and better at their imaging capabilities, handheld cameras will see their market share dip. But if you got the money and you want a nice retro looking camera with some great selfie capabilities, then this one would be the one to buy.
Selfies have become the biggest fetish of the 21st century. The once humble front-facing camera is now one of the most critical elements of a smartphone. We think that the Best Selfie Phone is one which has the front facing camera capable of revealing every pore and wrinkle on your face.
Voting is now Closed! The Winner for the Best Selfie Phone in the iGyaan Tech Awards 2014 is HTC One M8 Eye.
Now, Sony has made a move on the selfie trend by officially announcing its Sony Xperia C3 and Xperia C3 Dual smartphones, which have been designed keeping in mind selfie lovers.
The Xperia C3 is powered by the Snapdragon 400 chipset with a quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex-A7 processor, Adreno 305 GPU and 1GB of RAM. The rest of the specs include 8GB of expandable storage, an 8MP rear cam with a LED flash, and a super thin body at 7.6mm. Xperia C3 is also 4G-enabled and supports LTE Cat4 and a dual-SIM variant dubbed Sony Xperia C3 Dual, which supports not only dual-standby, but dual-call too.
The Xperia C3 sports an 8-megapixel autofocus rear camera along with LED flash. The smartphone is Sony’s first to come with a 5-megapixel front-facing camera along with an LED flash reson for which it is touted as a pro-selfie phone. The front-facing camera features a wide- angle view to capture a group selfie without unnecessary squeezing inside the image.
Both front and rear camera include features like Superior Auto, Portrait Retouch v.2, Timeshift-burst, Picture effects, Movie Creator, Social Live, Sweep Panorama and a special dedicated app for Vine which lets users capture short 6-second videos and share it directly from the smartphone. Both cameras also provide HDR mode and number of filter effects.
The Sony Xperia C3 with 8GB of inbuilt storage which can be expanded via microSD card (up to 32GB). It comes with a 2500mAh battery, which is rated for up to 24 hours of talk time and 1,071 hours of standby time.
Right now, it is not specified when will Xepria C3 be launched in India, but there is no doubt that it will eventually make its way here. The first market to get it is China, but it will spread worldwide shortly after. Sony Xperia C3 will be available in white, black and mint colors starting in August. The pricing is yet to be announced.
Along with the launch of the Sony Xperia C3 sony has released a massive infographic in an effort to convince you that selfies are a lot more important than you think. Check it out here.
